Systems and Methods for Supporting Health-Based Communications

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/568,160, filed on Mar. 21, 2024, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Various embodiments relate generally to health care systems, methods, devices and computer programs and, more specifically, relate to supporting health-based communications through a digital communication network.

This section is intended to provide a background or context. The description may include concepts that may be pursued, but have not necessarily been previously conceived or pursued. Unless indicated otherwise, what is described in this section is not deemed prior art to the description and claims and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

Computers have changed the way people interact. Digital networks, which may include the use of social media, allow individuals to interact with others online and connect many people within a community. The online community can be utilized to help build positive behaviors and encourage people to make improvements in their lives through health-based communications.

What is needed is a way to build upon the social media and the access that computers have in order to build healthy lifestyles and encourage members to develop healthy behaviors.

Example aspects of the present disclosure include:

A method to manage adverse health conditions in a population according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure comprises providing a digital communication network (DCN) for a plurality of members of a population to interact with each other and the DCN; transmitting an invitation to an individual member of the plurality of members to test a biological marker related to the adverse health condition; providing instructions to the individual member to test the biological marker; receiving, through the DCN, a test result of the biological marker; and enabling the individual member to share the test result with other members of the plurality of members through the DCN.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein the biological marker is at least one of a chronic systematic inflammation level and an auto-antibody level.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein the biological marker is related to at least one of: inflammation, auto-immune disease, metabolic disease, diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Crohn's disease, Psoriasis, eczema, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, depression, anxiety, social isolation, risk of falling, and a prodromal form of the adverse health condition.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein providing instructions to the individual member test the biological marker comprising sending the user a sampling kit to test the biological marker at home.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein the sampling kit is configured to collect at least one of: stool, blood, and saliva.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein the sampling kit comprises at least one of a psychometric instrument, a heart rate monitor, an accelerometer, and a pulse oximeter.

Any of the aspects herein, further comprising prioritizing communications presented to the individual member from other members of the DCN that have levels of the biological marker which are improved over time.

Any of the aspects herein, further comprising prioritizing messages presented to the individual member which are from other members of the DCN engaged in actions aimed at improving respective levels of their biological marker.

Any of the aspects herein, further comprising transmitting an invitation to the individual member to conduct a subsequent test of the biological marker.

Any of the aspects herein, further comprising determining a change in the biological marker based on test result and a subsequent test result from the subsequent test.

Any of the aspects herein, further comprising prioritizing messages presented to the individual member which are from other members of the DCN for which the change in a level of the biological marker is improved over time.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein the invitation to test the biological marker is algorithmically generated.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein the invitation to test the biological marker is transmitted from another member in the DCN.

Any of the aspects herein, further comprising transmitting one or more communications regarding the biological marker created by a bot in the DCN.

A method to manage adverse health conditions in a population according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure comprises providing a digital communication network (DCN) for a plurality of members of a population to interact with each other and the DCN; transmitting an invitation to an individual member of the plurality of members to conduct a first test and at least a second test of a biological marker related to the adverse health condition; providing instructions to the individual member to conduct the first test and the second test of the biological marker; receiving, through the DCN, a first test result from the first test and a second test result from the second test of the biological marker; and enabling the individual member to share at least one of the first test result, the second test result, and a difference in the first test result and the second test result with other members of the plurality of members through the DCN.

Any of the aspects herein, further comprising transmitting a suggestion of a medical intervention to the individual member based on the difference in the first test result and the second test result.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein each member of the plurality of members conducted the first test and the second test and shared least one of the first test result, the second test result, and a difference in the first test result and the second test result within the DCN, and wherein the method further comprises transmitting a suggestion of a medical intervention to a subset of members based on the difference in the first test result and the second test result, wherein the subset of members have similar differences.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein each member of the plurality of members conducted the first test and the second test and shared least one of the first test result, the second test result, and a difference in the first test result and the second test result within the DCN, and wherein the method further comprises transmitting information about an availability of an intervention paid for by a health care risk holder based on at least partially the difference in the first test result and the second test result.

A method to manage adverse health conditions in a population according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure comprises providing a digital communication network (DCN) for a plurality of members of a population to interact with each other and the DCN; transmitting an invitation to an individual member of the plurality of members to conduct a first test of a biological marker related to the adverse health condition; providing instructions to the individual member to test the biological marker; receiving, through the DCN, a first test result of the biological marker; enabling the individual member to share the first test result with other members of the plurality of members through the DCN; transmitting an invitation to the individual member to conduct a second test of the biological marker; receiving, through the DCN, a second test result of the biological marker; enabling the individual member to share at least one of the first test result, the second test result, and a difference in the first test result and the second test result with other members of the plurality of members through the DCN; and prioritizing communications presented to the individual member from other members of the DCN that have levels of the biological marker which are improved over time.

Any of the aspects herein, wherein the biological marker is at least one of a chronic systematic inflammation level and an auto-antibody level.

Any aspect in combination with any one or more other aspects.

Any one or more of the features disclosed herein.

Any one or more of the features as substantially disclosed herein.

Any one or more of the features as substantially disclosed herein in combination with any one or more other features as substantially disclosed herein.

Any one of the aspects/features/embodiments in combination with any one or more other aspects/features/embodiments.

Use of any one or more of the aspects or features as disclosed herein.

It is to be appreciated that any feature described herein can be claimed in combination with any other feature(s) as described herein, regardless of whether the features come from the same described embodiment.

The details of one or more aspects of the disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the techniques described in this disclosure will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

Various embodiments are directed to managing a member's health and the health system based on a member's progression rather than focus on the member's particular state at the time. Such management may be based in part on creating and implementing changes to a member's behavior. Behavioral changes can be improved by making it a social process instead of an individualistic pursuit.

By way of background, as a social process, value can be placed on those members of a community or population that have experience over expertise. Such value can be used to create an atmosphere or community where members can learn about others who have undergone the same interventions that an individual member is contemplating or in the process of doing. Additionally, the community can be used to help support the individual member, which can be a patient under the care of a physician or simply someone interested in the condition and/or disease.

The community can also be used to encourage lifestyle interventions, which are inherently safe. Such community may use the philosophy that any action now is preferred to a “better” action later and also support the concept that ideas and communication are health care. Conventionally, lifestyle change has been looked at as an individual pursuit, such as plans personalized just for the individual. Further, medicine is typically a one-on-one activity (reinforced by the privacy concepts the system is based on). In the present disclosure, lifestyle change is seen as highly driven by social parameters and the impact on social parameters is critical, as will be discussed below.

Conventional lifestyle applications may tell individuals the “right thing to do,” which could be right, but given the complexity of the lifestyle change, is likely not to occur. Often, if the lifestyle change suggested works, they can make the individual more dependent on things outside the individual's control. On the other hand, communities share experiences, not expertise, which individuals can try and if they work for them, is a success. In some cases, success can range from slowing the progression of adverse conditions to managing a disease, or the overall risk level in a population.

Lifestyle change may be supported by communities that provide support, ideas, and, in the case of these ideas, access to tools to provide objective data to make meaningful lifestyle changes in an individual user or members of a population. For example, in a community where a person is a peer, the actions they take and learn from are their volition and may result in increased agency (or autonomy) or self-efficacy. This not only increases the chance of continuous lifestyle improvement, but improved outcomes throughout the heath system.

Another benefit to various embodiments address an issue where insurers use the lack of an objective measure to block access to care. For example, if a patient has not already tried a weight loss program, then they cannot use a drug to aid them in weight loss or they cannot get bariatric surgery. Rather, by looking at a patient's history, biological markers and/or other factors, patients may be considered for treatment or other care (such as interventions, etc.) rather than sticking to a rigid progression. Patients may be granted access to different treatments in view of characteristics that indicate earlier treatments in the progression may not be well received. The focus is on progression, not state. Thus, when looking at a treatment the absolute value and their variation are not as important as looking at the change in an individual. This change also makes what might look like a noisy marker much more precise.

Further, online communities such as the DCN can be provided so that people can learn about healthy lifestyle practices and work to improve their health between clinical touchpoints, such as office visits. To help incentivize healthy behaviors, individuals can use tools like in-home tests and biosensors that measure how well their health actions are working.

Various embodiments can serve to manage a variety of conditions, such as, CSI. For example, specific inflammatory markers may be of interest, e.g., in diagnosing and approving drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Management of a condition can include maintaining the condition at the present levels, slowing the progression or reversing the condition (if possible). Using the DCN, many members of the population can be assisted which allows the embodiments to be used to manage the health of the population, the health risks of the population and/or reduce health care expense of the population overall.

By way of background, generalized CSI is not specific to any disease and, as such, does not often fit into a single category in a health care system. Such characterization results in CSI not being treated in a risk/benefit positive way with drugs or surgery or with any of the tools the provider and insurer community provide. Instead, it is driver and marker of disease progression in general, even if the particular disease is unknown. While the risk-benefit-ratio of drugs and surgery are not positive it can be improved (and therefore disease progression can be slowed) with lifestyle, social situation, emotional management with little or no risk.

Although CSI effects progression of a disease, progression is not typically measured in health care. Inflammation and its management impact disease progression and, at some point, disease state. If disease progression can be slowed, the disease state can be avoided and the population is less sick. Thus, it is beneficial to provide methods and systems where members of a population can be identified as having increased levels of biological markers that indicate the start of or progression of a disease and providing interventions such as communications from other members experiencing the same increase levels of the biological markers and how those members improved and decreased their levels of the biological markers.

The system shown inincludes a data repository (). The data repository () is a type of storage unit or device (e.g., a file system, database, data structure, or any other storage mechanism) for storing data (described below). The data repository () may include multiple different, potentially heterogeneous, storage units and/or devices.

The data repository () stores biological marker(s) (). The biological markers () are a measurable characteristic of a biological state or condition or what is happening in an organism or a cell. The biological markers () are measured and evaluated using a blood, urine, stool, saliva, breath, or soft tissue sample from a user or member of a population or from heart rate meters, accelerometer samples, body temperature as well as other signals derived from wearables. The biological markers () can also be derived from psychometric instruments and EMA-derived data. The biological markers () can be obtained from testing at home or at a clinic. In instances where the biological markers () are obtained from at-home tests, the results may be more precise, which can be used to detect benefits that would otherwise be within the variance of a population-controlled sample.

The biological markers () can be indicative or provide information about, for example, a chronic medical condition. The chronic medical condition may be, for example, chronic systemic inflammation (CSI). More specifically, CSI may be measured based on biological markers () of activation of a member's immune system. Other biological markers () may include auto-antibody levels, cytokines to antibodies, or biomarkers like heart rate variability. Any biological marker () may be used and may be specific biological markers (), general biological markers (), or may be used as part of an index.

CSI is not specific to any disease, but is rather a driver and marker of disease progression of a disease, such as, for example, Crohn's disease, eczema, psoriasis, etc. Thus, monitoring and treating CSI using the biological markers () can lead to positive outcomes for a member of the population. For example, an increasing level of the biological markers () may indicate an increase in a member's CSI and the corresponding disease, whereas a decreasing level may indicate a decrease in the member's CSI and severity of the disease. Thus, a member's actions or activities that relate to a reducing level of the biological marker () may be beneficial to share with other members of the population with the same or similar biological level. By sharing the member's actions or activities, the other members may be willing to try such actions or activities to reduce their own level of the biological marker ().

The biological marker () may include multiple biological markers () obtained from a member at different time periods. For example, the biological marker () may include a first biological marker and a second biological marker obtained at different times. The difference between the first biological marker and the second biological marker can be used to determine if a level of the biological marker is increasing or decreasing. It will be appreciated that the biological marker () can have any number of biological markers (), such as one biological marker (), two biological markers (), or more than two biological markers ().

The data repository () also stores invitation(s) (). The invitation () may be, for example, an invitation or request to conduct or complete a test for the biological marker () to an individual member of the population. In other embodiments, the invitation () may be sent to multiple members of the population or the entire population. The invitation () may include buttons (e.g., yes/no buttons), and/or a text, and/or media box for the individual member to type in to send feedback such as, for example, more information about the test.